Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-08-19

DtAl inSidni llt was uinOnR
was no chance to stop. Had there been
warning it would have taken half a mile
to stop that on-rushing mass of wood,
iron and human lives, and the train was
within 100 yards of the red-tongued mes
sengers of death before they flashed
their fatal signals into the engineers
face. But he passed over in safety.
The first engine keeping the rails, as it
went over, the bridge fell beneath it, and
it could only have been the terrific speed
of the train which saved the lives of en-
gineer and fireman. But the next engine
went down and instantly the deed of
death was done. Car crashed into car
Coaches piled upon one another, and in
the twinkling of an eye nearly 100 peo-
yle found instant death and 90 more
were so badly hurt they could not live.
As for the wounded, they were every
where. Only the sleeping-coaches es-
capped. On top of one another were
piled the three baggage cars one upon
another like child's card-house after he
had swept it with his hand. Then came
the six day coaches. They were tele-
scoped as cars never were before, and
three of them were pressed into just
space enough for one. The second car
had mounted off its trucks and crashed
through the car ahead of it, crushing the
woodwork aside like finder and lay
there resting on the tops of the seats
while every passenger in the front car
was lying dead or dying underneath.
Out of that car but four people came
alive. On top of the second car lay the
third. and its bottom was smeared with
the blood of its victims. The other
three cars were not SO badly crushed,
but they were broken and twisted in
every conceivable way and every crushed
timber and beam represented a crushed
human frame and a broken bone. In
stantly the air was filled with cries of
the wounded and the shrieks of the dy-
ing. The groans of men and the screams
of women united to make appalling
sounds. and above all could be heard the
agoniZing cries of little children, as in
some instances they lay pinned along
side their dead parents.
And there was another terrible danger
yet to be met. The bridge was still
burning and the wrecked cars were lying
on and around the blazing timbers. But
by the most strenuous eXertions the
wreck was prevented from catching fire,
though only after four hours work, as
the men had nothing but dry earth to
quench the flames. Meanwhile the work
of rescuing the wounded had been in
progress, and soon the village of Chats
worth was turned into a morgue. The
town hall. the engine-house, the depot
were all full of dead bodies, while every
house in the little village had its quota
of the wounded. There were nearly 100
corpses lying in the eXtemporized dead
houses, and every man and woman was
turned into an amateur but Jealous nurse.
Over in lumber-yard the noise of ham
mers and saws rang out in the air, and
busy carpenters were making rough cot
fins to carry the dead to their homes.
No sooner had the wreck occurred
than a scene of robbery began. Some
band of miscreants began plundering the
dead from this terrible accident. taking
even the shoes which covered their feet.
Who these wretches are is not now
known. Whether they were band of
pick-pockets who accompanied the train
or some robber gang who were lurking
in the vicinity cannot be said. The hor-
rible suspicion, however, exists and there
are many who give it credit, that the ac-
cident was a deliberately planned case of
train wrecliing that the bridge was set
on fire by miscreants who hoped to seize
the opportunity offered and the fact that
the bridge was so far consumed at the
time the train came along and the added
fact that the train was an hour and half
late are pointed out as evidence of a
careful conspiracy.
All sorts of horrible details are pub
lished. Z. A. Van Zandt of Peoria. who
was on the wrecked train, says: | was
in the rear sleeper and so was in no dan.
rar in tha siy elaanars :
more than shaken up. But even there
we got bad shake. | felt three distinct
bumps and then rushed out Of the cal
and ran forward to the wreck. There
the scenes were horrible, horrible. The
only light was the flames of the burning
bridge and above it the day coaches were
piled on top of one another in hetero
geneous mass. The engine was buried
in the ditch and the headless body of the
engineer, Eugene McClintock, was un
derneath it. There was an incident il
the affair which was not only remarkable
in its way, but shows how terribly
those six coaches were damned anC
mashed together. When the acciden
occurred Andy Mooney of Peoria an(
Conductor Stillwell, who was in charg,
of train, were three cars from each other
Mooney was in the second car and Still
well in the fifth. The next instant they
found themselves literally in each other
arms, the car in which the conductor wa
riding having been carried over the Two
in front and dropped on top of the on
which Mooney was in. The strange par
of it was neither man was hurt. Tn
most horrible death of all was that o
Eugene McClintock, engineer of the sec
ond engine of the double-header. Hi
engine plunged down into the black hole
and as the tender mounted on top of tn,
cab, it took McClintock in the back o
the neck and cut his head clean of hi
shoulders. The trunk was found undo
the engine, but the head could not
discovered, and the presumption is tina
it was ground to atoms in the horrible
mill-stOnes of the engine and the tender
The latest reports indicate that abou
80 persons were killed. The theory c
the railroad officials, that the accident wa
due to the firing of the bridge by gan
of train wreckers, has not been proved
The eXcursionists were chiefly wealth